a perpetual thorn in the church's side, joining with the Scotch enthusiasts, in the time of king Charles the First, were the principal cause of the Irish rebellion and massacre, by distressing that prince, and making it impossible for him to send over timely succours. And after that prince had satisfied his parliament in every single point to be complained of, the same sectaries, by poisoning the minds and affections of the people, with the most false and wicked representations of their king, were able, in the compass of a few years, to embroil the three nations in a bloody rebellion, at the expense of many thousand lives; to turn the kingly power into anarchy; to murder their prince in the face of the world; and (in their own style) to destroy the church root and branch.
The account therefore stands thus. The papists aimed at one pernicious act, which was to destroy the protestant religion; wherein by God's mercy, and the assistance of our glorious [[w:William III of England|king William, they absolutely failed. The sectaries attempted the three most infernal actions that could possibly enter into the hearts of men forsaken by God; which were, the murder of a most pious king, the destruction of the monarchy, and the extirpation of the church; and succeeded in them all.
Upon which I put the following queries: Whether any of those sectaries have ever yet in a solemn publick manner renounced any one of those principles, upon which their predecessors then acted?
Whether, considering the cruel persecutions of the episcopal church during the course of that horrid rebellion, and the consequences of it until the happy restoration, it is not manifest, that the persecuting
spirit
